Desktop Research: Essays and Interviews on the Future

The initial listing of predictions about the future has been collected from our previous years' efforts and other recommended sources.

We'd love to see your clippings here as well! Please use the edit this page button to add more, or add comments on how or why you think they may or may not be important. As is the convention throughout the Horizon Project Wiki, we ask you to identify items you think are of high interest to us, as I have done here by typing 4 tilde (~) characters-- - LarryFeb 7, 2012. This will help us to sift through the articles and determine which ones resonate most strongly with the board as a whole.

Computer Science: The Future of Educationhttp://www.edutopia.org//blog/computer-science-future-of-education-alison-derbenwick-miller
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2020 there will be 1.4 million new computer science jobs. However, between current professionals and university students, we will only have 400,000 computer scientists trained to fill those roles. This article lists five simple steps that teachers, schools, parents, and industry can take today to integrate computer science into classrooms and begin to overcome the above-mentioned challenges. - davidwdeedsFeb 2, 2015- lindsay.julieFeb 4, 2015

The Future of Learning Environmentsgo.nmc.org/futurele
An architect explains how workshops in which students explore and question existing spaces at their school, as well as in their homes, can help better incorporate student feedback when designing their learning spaces and schools.- jmorrisonJan 30, 2015- davidwdeedsFeb 2, 2015- cromptonFeb 2, 2015- dezuanniFeb 2, 2015- bobmooreFeb 5, 2015- michael.lambertFeb 7, 2015

The Future of the Open Internet is Decentralizedhttp://www.dailydot.com/technology/decentralized-internet-future/
The Internet is having a quarter-life crisis. At just 25 years old, it suffers from two serious problems: Surveillance is carried out en masse, and citizens in many countries can access only the heavily censored or propagandized information available to them.- jmorrisonJan 30, 2015

The Generation Raised on Touchscreens Will Forever Alter Tech Designhttp://www.wired.com/2014/06/generation-moth/
We now live in the touchscreen paradigm. These interactive glowing rectangles are infiltrating our lives: from our desks to our wrists to our living rooms...

Get Past the Gimmicks and Gaze Upon the Future of Augmented Reality Appshttp://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/future-ar-mobile/
Mobile tech keeps moving toward AR. It feels tailor made for wearable technology, particularly smart glasses. New academic research has given us an insight into the exciting future possibilities for AR browsers, but it also highlights the barriers that must be overcome. - davidwdeedsFeb 2, 2015 AR! Its time has come! - lindsay.julieFeb 4, 2015

New Designs For New Schoolsgo.nmc.org/carneg
In this interview, Leah Hamilton, Program Director of Urban Education at Carnegie Corporation, discusses new designs for schools and priorities they must consider, such as making use of assets both in and out of school, including internships and service projects.- adrian_limFeb 2, 2015- davidwdeedsFeb 2, 2015- lindsay.julieFeb 4, 2015- bobmooreFeb 5, 2015 More blending learning "experiences" for students. - michael.lambertFeb 7, 2015

Silicon Valley Teens on the Future of Technologyhttp://recode.net/2014/10/05/silicon-valley-teens-on-the-future-of-technology/
During a tech event in Palo Alto the VC firm Foundation Capital asked dozens of teenagers what is in store for the future of technology. Some showed up with prototypes and models of projects they have in the works. When asked what kinds of college courses they’re looking forward to most, students called out things like “design thinking” and “applied entrepreneurship.” - lindsay.julieFeb 4, 2015

Steve Hargadon: Escaping the Education Matrixhttp://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/01/steve-hargadon-escaping-the-education-matrix/
The Internet has ushered in an era of “digital democracy” and increased people’s capacity to question the status quo. Widespread access to unlimited information has also opened many doors. But “the process of becoming a self-directed, independent learner is a very human process,” Hargadon says. “Recognizing the different needs of every student, and the desire to help each one become personally competent as a learner and find productive things to do in life—that won’t happen online.” - davidwdeedsFeb 2, 2015 Wow, couldn't be more wrong about this. The ONLY way this can happen is online...out of the classroom, independent of teachers/institutions.Symbiotic relationship bw online & offline needed - lindsay.julieFeb 4, 2015

Still No Flying Cars? Debating Technology’s Futurehttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/arts/peter-thiel-and-david-graeber-debate-technologys-future.html
Mr. Theil and Mr. Graeber both believe that technological innovation is in a state of stagnation but they have different ideas as to how to change this. To Mr. Graeber, the key is replacing what currently passes for democracy with a genuinely participatory system of the sort prefigured by the Occupy movement. Mr. Thiel, describing himself as a “political atheist,” said that people should spend less time trying to change the system than simply creating things outside it. And the key to progress, he said, may not be more democracy.

Time for an Academic Bitcoinhttp://www.insidehighered.com//blogs/world-view/time-academic-bitcoin
Perhaps it is time to create something along the lines of a bitcoin for higher education, a new international currency with different denominations that will be tied to different kinds of study. So for example, perhaps someone could acquire one kind of currency through traditional study in a classroom earning a particular “bitcoin”; let’s call these bitcoins, socratecoins. Then, another denomination for practical work such as internships, called practicoins; another for international study called globacoins; another for research called nobelacoins; perhaps one for study at for-profits called apollocoin and another for online study called moocoins. Surely moocoins will be earned by taking MOOCs?!- adrian_limFeb 2, 2015- davidwdeedsFeb 2, 2015 Remember universal accreditation standards for nontraditional degrees, online or just global! The U.S. Dept. of Education still maintains a stranglehold on which degrees are "accredited" and we're way behind re: moving beyond this!

U.S. Views of Technology and the Futurehttp://www.pewinternet.org/2014/04/17/us-views-of-technology-and-the-future/
A new national survey by The Pew Research Center asked Americans about a wide range of potential scientific developments—from near-term advances like robotics and bioengineering, to more “futuristic” possibilities like teleportation or space colonization. In addition to asking them for their predictions about the long-term future of scientific advancement, we also asked them to share their own feelings and attitudes toward some new developments that might become common features of American life in the relatively near future.- jmorrisonJan 30, 2015

Internet in Every Corner of the World. I've been driving everybody crazy with these "crystal ball" predictions in just about every section, but here's one that looks ahead to 2050. The Internet will be almost everywhere...and almost everybody will know how to read. Think there's a connection there, online-learning deniers (we have climate-change deniers and online-learning deniers)? *Sigh* The good news is that the human brain could last forever. The bad news is that it'll be Sarah Palin's. ;)http://www.businessinsider.com/the-world-in-2050-2014-6?op=1